Lt. Gen. Vyacheslav Kondrashov, Russian Deputy chief
of staff and head of GRU military intelligence, spent the first day of
his visit to Cairo, Tuesday, Oct. 29, with Egyptian military chiefs,
going through the list of Russian military hardware items they want to
buy in their first major arms transaction with Moscow in more than three
decades, debkafile’s
military sources report. The Egyptians asked Moscow to supply the sort
of advanced weapons withheld by the United States, and topped their
shopping list with medium-range intercontinental ballistic missiles that
cover Iran and most of the Middle East.

They told the Russian general that Moscow’s good faith in seeking to
build a new military relationship between the two governments would be
tested by its willingness to meet this Egyptian requirement.

They are most likely after the brand-new SS-25 road-mobile ICBM which
has a range of 2,000 km., which the Russians tested earlier this month.

Russia is not entirely comfortable with this demand, having signed a
mutual agreement with the US to stop manufacturing medium-range
ballistic missiles. And so the sale of SS-25 ICBMs to Egypt could get
the Russians in hot water in Washington.

Gen. Kondrashov told his hosts that their list would receive serious
scrutiny and, in the meantime, Moscow is prepared to offer Cairo
long-term credit on easy terms to finance the package. This would
relieve cash-strapped Egypt of the need to find the money to pay for the
arms and save its leaders having to turn to Saudi Arabia and the Arab
Emirates for funding.

The Russian general’s arrival in Cairo at the head of a large military
delegation was the first in 35 years. Since 1972, when Anwar Sadat
expelled the Soviet advisers, Egypt has never acquired Russian weapons.

debkafile:
Western sources are divided over the seriousness of the Saudi feud with
the Obama administration and tend to minimize Riyadh’s shift away from
its traditional ally, the US. But the Saudis are going full tilt to
distance themselves from Washington and are meanwhile urging Egypt’s
ruler Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, to turn away from his
country’s long dependence on America. Hence the large arms transaction
with Moscow, which was agreed as early as last July - and reported by debkafile at the time - when Saudi Intelligence Director Prince Bandar bin Sultan met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.

Word of the arrival of the Russian GRU general in Cairo appears to
have prompted US Secretary of State John Kerry to announce Tuesday that
he planned to visit to Egypt in the coming weeks. He may be too late to
stop Egypt’s drift out of the US orbit, especially since he made it
plain that he would insist on meeting with representatives of all the
country’s political factions. This was taken to mean the Muslim
Brotherhood and other opposition groups.

The Russian delegation has no plans to talk to any non-military figures
in Egypt, which means that its members will not step out of the loyal
circle centering on Gen. El-Sisi.

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